There are few fuzzier, more zoo-friendly public relations ventures than holding a naming contest for a polar bear cub.

That is, unless the shortlist of names includes a purportedly Inuktitut word that is not really an Inuktitut word at all. Then it becomes a small public relations disaster.

The contest, typically a feel-good exercise, descended into controversy late last week when Piita Irniq, former commissioner of Nunavut, detected something amiss with one of the prospective names for the Toronto Zoo’s three-month-old crowd-pleaser.

Searik, included among a half-dozen possibilities, was defined on the zoo’s website as “Inuit for beautiful.”

This left Irniq scratching his head because, as he told the Star, “There’s no meaning, absolutely no meaning to the name.”

“I put it on Facebook and . . . nobody understood what it meant either,” he said. “None of the Inuit who read the post understood what it means.”

Things got worse when Iqaluit-based Nunatsiaq News reported Friday on the zoo’s initial response to the apparent blunder. A spokeswoman told the newspaper the zoo had done research “to confirm the meaning was correct,” and referenced a Wiki Answers page.

“There are lots of knowledgeable Inuit to ask . . . (why) then would a reputable organization like the Toronto Zoo use Wiki Answers as an authoritative source?” one Nunatsiaq commenter wondered.

Others maintained the whole concept of naming a polar bear is out of touch with Inuit culture.

As Minnie Napartuk, an Inuktitut translator at Avataq Cultural Institute, explained, “I don’t think you should name an animal unless they are pets.”

The zoo quickly reversed course, and on Monday issued an effusive apology to the newspaper, acknowledging the source used to confirm the name was inaccurate, and further confirmation should have been sought.

“Quite frankly, when the source was brought to my attention, that’s when I said, ‘We have to fix this,’ ” Jennifer Tracey, the zoo’s senior director of marketing and communications, told the Star.

“It was certainly never our intention to offend anyone,” Tracey said. “I want to reach out and make this better.”

The zoo has removed the definitions from the shortlist of names, which still includes Searik “because people like the name,” Tracey said.

Talks are also underway with officials from the national Inuit organization Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, to identify a correct Inuit term for “beautiful” that could be incorporated into whatever name is selected for the cub, she said.

“The intentions were good. We would like to reflect that, and to accurately reflect that,” she said.

Settling on a single word, however, may prove difficult.

Irniq suggested “iniqunaqeuq,” which he said is used to convey that someone is beautiful or “piujuq,” which means “nice.”

But as Avataq’s Sylvie Cote Cheu points out, “In Inuktitut, you don’t have an adjective on its own.”

“It’s not a language that functions like French or English,” she said.

With files from Ira Lamcja

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